2 feared dead, dozens missing as powerful earthquake triggers landslides in Japan

Tragedy struck in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Thursday, when a powerful magnitude 6.6 quake struck leaving two victims dead and a dozen others missing.

Reports say the earthquake destroyed dozens of houses and triggered multiple, large-scale landslides on the sparsely populated countryside.

Around three million homes lost power after the quake damaged a major thermal plant supplying the region.

“There was a sudden, extreme jolt. I felt it went sideways, not up-and-down, for about two to three minutes,” Kazuo Kibayashi, 51, a town official at hard-hit Abira town, told reports.

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“It stopped before shaking started again. I felt it come in two waves. I am 51, and I have never experienced anything like this. I thought my house was going to collapse. Everything inside my house was all jumbled up. I didn’t have time to even start cleaning,” he added.

The incident is coming a day after a total number of 10 lives were lost after a powerful typhoon which distorted visibility hit the western part of Japan.

The incident according to local sources forced an airport company started to transfer some 3,000 stranded passengers by boats from a flooded airport.

According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said about 300 people were injured and about 1.2 million homes were without power after the typhoon struck.

 

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